Millions of Cubans have attended rallies around the country to demand the return from the United States of six-year-old shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez.

Not even Dante could have described the hell Elian has been through

President Fidel Castro

There were brass bands, songs and speeches - most of them anti-American.

Meanwhile in the US, in the aftermath of Elian's seizure by federal agents 10 days ago, a row deepened between the Mayor of Miami and another top city official.

Hundreds of thousands of people converged on Havana's Revolution Plaza for a rally.

Many had pictures of Elian, the boy at the centre of an international custody battle, pinned to their shirts.

President Fidel Castro, in his first May Day speech for many years, said the annual march had been given a harder edge this year because of the battle for Elian.

Phone call

In a piece of pure theatre he called up Elian's father on a mobile phone so he could pass on greetings to the crowd.

On the phone to Elian's father

"It is Juan Miguel," President Castro said holding the telephone. "He says, 'Congratulations. Many thanks.'"

His words were greeted by an enormous roar of approval from the crowd.

And in a reference to Elian, he added: "Not even Dante could have described the hell he has been through."

Court battle

Cuba has seen massive deomonstrations demanding the return of Elian since November, when the boy was found floating on an inner tube off the Florida coast following a boating accident that killed his mother and 10 others.

His Miami relatives are fighting to keep him in the United States while his father wants to take the child back to Cuba.

Elian and his father were reunited last week

Elian was reunited with his father Juan Miguel Gonzalez in Washington last week after a dramatic raid on his Miami relatives' home.

The raid has been bitterly criticised by South Florida's large Cuban-American community, as well as by conservative members of Congress.

Father and son must stay in the United States pending an 11 May appeals court hearing.

Elian's Miami relatives have demanded a political asylum hearing for the child.